The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-10-26

O'Clock. Close the evening by writing a
bitter letter expressing your sentiments.
Take from the desk or pigeon hole the
papers in the case to refresh your mind
with your evenings meanness. Then lie
DOWN and wait for the coming of the
day, and it will come before sleep comes,
Dr. your sleep will be a worried quiescence
| and, if you take the precaution TO lie fiat
On your back, a frightful nightmare.
Why not put bound to your animOsity!
| Why let your foes come into the sancti-
lies of your dormitory? Why let those
slanderers who have already torn your
reputation to pieces or injured your busi-
ness, bend over your midnight pillow and
| drive from you one of the greatest bless
ings that God can offer-sweet, refresh
| ing, all invigorating sleep? Why not
fence out your enemies by the golden
| bars Of the sunset Why not stand be
hind the barricade of evening cloud and
say TO them, Thus far and no fartherI'
Many man and many a woman is hav-
| ing the health Of body as well as the
| health of soul eaten away by malevo-
lent spirit. / have in time of religious
awakening had persons, night after night,
come into the inquiry room and get no
peace Of soul. After awhile ] have
| bluntly asked her: is there not some
one against whom you have hatred
| that you are not willing TO give up!'
| After little confusion she has slightly
whispered Eyes" Then / said to her:
''You will never find peace with God as
| long as you retain that viruIence.
| A boy in Sparta having stole a fox
kept him under his coat, and though the
| fox was gnawing his vitals, he submitted
| TO ii rather than expose his mlsdeed.
Many a man with a smiling face has
under his jacket an luminosity that Is
| gnawing away the strength of his body
| and the integrity of his soul. Better get
| rid of that hidden fox as soon as possible.
| There are hundreds of domestic circles
where that which most is needed is the
spirit Of forgiveness. Brothers apart, and
sisters apart, and parents and children
| apart. Solomon says brother offended
| is harder to be won than strong city.
| Are there not enough sacred memories of
| your childhood to bring YOU together?
| The rabbius recount how that Nebuchad-
nezZar 5 son had such spite against his
father that after he was dead, he had his
| father burned to ashes and then put the
/ ashes in four sacks and tied them to four
eagles necks which flew away in oppo-
| site directions. And there are now
domestic antipathies that seem forever to
have scattered all parental memories to
the four winds of heaven. How far the
eagles fly with that sacred ashes, The
hour of shutdown makes to that family no
practical suggestion. Thomas Carlyle in
| his biography of Frederick the Great says
the old king was told by the confessor he
must be at peace with his enemies if he
wanted to enter heaven. Thsn he said to
his wife, the queen: "Write TO your
brother after | am dead that l forgive
| him." Roloff, the confessor, said: "Her
majesty had better write him immedi-
ately.'' mo, . said the king, latter /
am dead; that will be safer" SO he let
the sun of his earthly existence go down
upon his wrath.
Again: we ought not to allow the sun
set before forgiveness takes place, be-
cause we might not live to see another
day. And what if we should be ushered
into the presence of our Maker with
| grudge upon our soul? The majority of
I people depart this life in the night. Be
fore II c'clock p. m. and O'Clock a. m.
| there is something in the atmosphere
which relaxes the grip which the body.
has or the soul, and most of people en-
| ter the next world through the shadows
| of this world. Perhaps God may have
arranged it in that way so as to make
the contrast the more glorious. l have
seen sunshiny days in this world that
must have been almost like the radiance
Of heaven. But as most people leave the
earth between shutdown and sunrise they
| quit this world at its darkest, and heav-
| on altVayg briUbt will no ha br;ol,tor
| for that contrast. Out Of blackness into
irradiation. Shall we then leap over the
| roseate bank of sunset into the favorite
hunting ground of disease and death,
carrying our animosities with us? Who
would want to confront his God. against
whom we have all done meaner things
than anybody has ever done against us,
carrying old grudges? How can we ex-
| pect his forgiveness for the greater when
we are not willing to forgive others the
less? Napoleon was encouraged to UNI
dertake the crossing of the Alps because
| Charlemagne had previously crossed
| them. And all this rugged path of for
giveness bears the bleeding footsteps of
him who conquered through suffer
| ing, and we ought 10 be will
| ing to follow. On the night of
our departure from this life into the
next, our one plea will have to be for
mercy, and it will have to be offered in
the presence of him who has said: IF
| you forgive not men their trespasses.
| neither will your heavenly father forgive
| your trespasses. What a sorry blight
| If we stand there hating this one, and
hating that one, and wishing this one a
| damage, and wishing some one else a
calamity, and we ourselves needing for
| giveness for ten thousand times ten
| thousand obliquities of heart and life
| When our last hour comes we want it to
| find us all right. Hardly ANYTHING af-
| tects me so much in the uncovering of
| ancient Pompeil as the account of the
| ancient soldier who, after the city had
| for many centuries been covered with
the ashes and scoria of Vesuvius, was
| found standing in his place on guard,
| hand on spear and helmet on head
| Others fled at the awful enlargement
but the explorer. 200 years after, found
| the body of that brave fellow in right
| position. And it will be a grand thing
| if, when our last moment comes, we are
found in right position toward the world,
as well as i'll right position toward God
on guard and unaffrighted by the ashes
| from the mountain of death | do not
suppose that am any more of coward
than most people, but l declare to YOU
that l would not dare to sleep tonight if
there were any being in all the earth
with whom / would not gladly shake
hands, lest, during the night hours, nv
spirit dismissed to other realms, should.
because of my unforgiving spirit, be de-
MED divine forgiveness.
But, SAYS some woman, ssthere is a
horrid creature that has so injured me
that rather than make up with her |
would die first. Well, sister, YOU NAV
take your choice-for one or the other it
will be-your complete pardon of her or
Gods eternal Punishment of you. But
says some man, that fellow who cheated
me out of those goods or damaged nv
business credit, or started that lie about
me in the newspapers, or by his perfdy
broke up my domestic happiness, forgive
him | cannot, forgive him | will not,
Well brother, take your choice. You
will never be at peace with God till YOU
are at peace with man. Feeling as YOU
now do, you would not get so near the
harbor of heaven as tosee the lightship.
Better leave that with the God who said:
vengeance is mine, l will repay" You
may say: II Will make him sweat for
that yet, l viii make him squirm, /
mean to pursue him TO the DEATH but
you are damaging yourself more than
you damage him and you are making
Leaven for your soul an impossibiliry.
If he will not be reconciled to you, be
reconciled to him. In five or sig hours i
it viii be shutdown. The dahlias will
bloom against the western sky. Some
where between this and that take a
shovel and bury the old quarrel at least |
six feet deem IT or NOT the s,,r 90, l,,,,-,,